Editorial

Sally Burford and Lesley Cooper from Flinders University have provided a paper in which they describe how they are using WebCT in their Faculty as a course delivery tool. In particular the paper describes how they are using WebCT to support the adoption of online delivery and the development processes which they find useful for this purpose. Geraldine Torrisi-Steele and Glenda Davis from Griffith University describe in their paper, the use of campus based production centres within their university as a support for academics in the development and delivery of technology based learning. The centres offers academics the services of multimedia development teams to support their activities. The paper explores the expectations, experiences and of lecturers as they engage with the educational designer to develop online learning materials in such settings.

This issue also contains several papers that report findings from implementations of online learning settings. Allison Piguet and Daniel Peray from TECFA at the University of Geneva in Switzerland describe the creation of WebCT learning environments. The paper reports the levels of user satisfaction and control demonstrated among students across a variety of WebCT tools. Wendy McKenzie and David Murphy, Monash University, have provided a very interesting paper that describes results from an exploration using content analysis of an online discussion group. The discussion group was part of the learning environment for a subject of the Graduate Certificate in Higher Education. The results confirm the success of the discussion group, and provide a useful conceptual lens with which to study online environments. Simon Housego and Mark Freeman, University of Technology Sydney, have written a paper for readers who are looking to explore more innovative and imaginative uses of course delivery systems. Their paper describes five fictional case studies based on their experiences in innovation and academic development.

And on another theme Kieran Lim and Jeanne Lee at Deakin University have produced a paper that provides insights into the adoption of technology-based teaching in universities by exploring aspects of students' computer literacy and readiness for computer based delivery. The paper reports the results of a survey of first year undergraduate students at Deakin University. The results reveal high penetration of IT usage but variable levels of IT skills development. The paper argues an urgent need for IT training for university students in order to achieve successful learning outcomes using IT and to satisfy the needs of future employers.

Ron Oliver
Editor

Conferences advertised in AJET 16(3)

Ron Oliver (Editor), Edith Cowan University
Roger Atkinson (Production Editor), Murdoch University
Cathy Gunn, University of Auckland
Barry Harper, University of Wollongong
Mary Jane Mahony, University of Sydney
Clare McBeath, Curtin University of Technology
Sue McNamara, Monash University
Rod Sims, Southern Cross University

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